GPPi starts new study on strengthening child protection in development cooperation

In June 2013 GPPi launched a project commissioned by the German Ministry of Development Cooperation on the promotion of child protection in international development cooperation. The study will be conducted over a period of 18 months in collaboration with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) in Vienna.

The project is titled ​“Strengthening Child Protection in Development Cooperation.”

Because children and youth make up more than half of the population in developing countries, protecting and promoting child rights must be an integral part of any rights-based approach to international development cooperation.

In recent decades, important achievements have been made towards the universal ratification of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. More than 20 states have signed a third optional protocol on a communications procedure that allows children to submit individual complaints regarding specific violations of their rights. Other instruments, such as the Palermo Protocol against human trafficking or the International Labour Organisation’s convention on child labor, have been ratified by many countries.

Notwithstanding the growing commitment to human rights in general and child rights in particular, children and youth continue to suffer from physical and mental harm. Some of the most extreme forms of violence against children have even become more widespread. A recent study by the UN Office on Drug Prevention and Crime found a growing number of children affected by trafficking.

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) has asked GPPi to carry out a study on the ​“Promotion of Child Protection within Germany’s Development Cooperation” (Stärkung von Kindeschutz in Programmen und Projekten der deutschen staatlichen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit). Building on a series of previous studies about child protection commissioned by the BMZ, the research team will analyze the challenges of advancing the practical fulfillment of child rights.